giving thanks.

I took this past week off from blogging (and from studying.... :/ whoops!) for Thanksgiving. It has been a really great (and necessary) break! And now, I'm sitting in Starbucks re-listening to a lecture and catching up on my studies. I'm not sure I'm ready to head back to school for the final 3 weeks of this core/semester. At the same time, I cannot believe that we only have 3 weeks left of the first semester of our 1st year! I don't think I could have ever imagined the year going this quickly when we started school 14 weeks ago.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've had some excitement interspersed with my studies. I've decided to give y'all a quick review of the highlights.

Stanley Hauerwas. He's an American theologian who is at Duke University. He came to UNL to talk about the "Church as a Politic". The lecture sort of ended up as a medical ethics lecture, which I totally LOVED! I miss that portion of my medical education...I need some humanities mixed in with my hard science. It was also great to see my friends/roommate from Lincoln!

NAP. I had a brief meeting with the Omaha office of Nebraska AIDS Project about volunteering as an HIV tester and counselor. I've been involved with HIV/AIDS prevention education for 7 years now and it's definitely become a huge part of my life. I just can't imagine giving it up in the future, so I'm happy to be partnering with them! Speaking of HIV/AIDS awareness...this upcoming Saturday (December 1st) is World AIDS Day. I will be spending the morning at Douglas County Corrections presenting about STD/STIs and testing for chlamydia and gonorrhea (Douglas County has the highest rates of infection of any county in the United States) and will definitely be wearing my red ribbon. You should too! You can do a quick google search to see if there are any World AIDS Day events in your area to attend to increase your own knowledge AND general awareness of the epidemic.

Sunny D's 2.0. Closely related to my meeting with NAP, I am actually working on a project with a local group of AmeriCorps volunteers to create a group which would give HIV/AIDS prevention education presentations at a local high school. When I was in high school, I was in a group called Sunny D's and they're trying to model the program after that. We will be in conversation in the coming months as they work to shape their program to fit their particular needs, but they are excited to use my experiences and knowledge of groups of the like (I was also in PHIVE-O, Peer HIV Education Organization, at Hastings College, so I have several years of experience with teaching this demographic and the administrative difficulties that sometimes arise) in the meantime. Perhaps I will even get to co-teach with some of their volunteers!

Do JuSTIce. I was lucky enough to volunteer at the jail again to test for chlamydia and gonorrhea. I led the short presentation this last time which was actually a bit nerve-racking. I made it through it without any major slipups. I'm excited to go back this weekend also!

EMET. We had a short information meeting about the "Enhanced Medical Education Tracks" at UNMC the other day. There are 6 tracks: Aging and Integrated Medicine, Auto-Immune Diseases, Clinical Quality and Patient Safety, Comprehensive HIV Medicine, Medical Humanities and Arts, Preventative Medicine, and Underserved Health Care. They are "an opportunity to perform in-depth study of an interdisciplinary field of medicine that enhances the required curriculum without extending the time needed to graduate from medical school." I haven't decided whether or not I will actually apply, let alone be accepted, to a track, but I really like the idea of them. Of course I am interested in several of the tracks, so we shall see what will happen. The applications don't open until the end of the week so I still have some time to think about it.

Student Delegates. Well, I joined another extracurricular group (...no one is surprise, I'm sure). I had some help getting there though. My good friend Paul convinced me to join the "Student Delegates" after he read my blog post about healthcare reform. Essentially this group goes to our local political representatives to discuss/lobby our positions concerning issues about medicine and even issues that students deal with, such as Pell grants. I do have a passion for this sort of thing and the first meeting was fun, so it wasn't hard to convince me to join. I'm excited to continue learning more about the topics that will be covered in the upcoming legislative session!

Dance. I'm sure some of you are starting to think I'm a broken record, but I still really love going to dance class. It's such great stress relief and even better exercise! This is really the first time in about 10 years that I haven't been dancing for some sort of team performance or competition, so it's definitely something that I've had to get used to. I look forward to that hour and half of not studying/not thinking/not stressing/not sitting every week!

LCE. I spent another afternoon in the clinic this past week. I always enjoy my time with patients, so it was a good way to end a short week of classes. This upcoming week I will have my final visit of the semester. Don't worry, I will be back for 5 more visits next semester too!

Thanksgiving. Even though I'm a vegetarian, I was absolutely looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. Seriously, what could be better than green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and pie!?? Nothing! As an added bonus, I got to spend time with my wonderful family and take some time off from studying to relax. Lucky for me, we celebrated Thanksgiving over an entire week this year, so I got to spread out my food-induced comas. I'm also looking forward to the leftovers I have since home-cooked food is just so much better than some of the meals I make for myself on a regular basis.

Christmas Tree. Our Christmas tree is up! The weather has started getting colder practically overnight, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and December is just around the corner! I can't believe it's already the holiday season. This year I will be spending some time in Memphis and then time traveling around Nebraska catching up with friends and family. Just 3 weeks of classes and 2 tests are separating me from break...

Finally...an update!

My apologies for taking so long to write an update. The past week or so has been absolutely nuts! I am officially finished with October (thank God!!) and with the 4 weeks of testing that it entailed. I survived anatomy and we've moved on to "Cellular Processes," a.k.a. biochemistry. The biggest transition between the two cores is that we now have 4 hours of lecture each morning instead of only 1-2 hours of lecture with 1-2 hours of lab. I realize that 4 hours is only half of my day and that it truly isn't that long in the grand scheme of things, but sometimes it's a little rough to get through. Even though biochem isn't the most thrilling topic I've ever studied (not that it's the most boring subject I've studied either), I'm learning quite a bit. Actually, the more I study cells and the longer I'm in school, the more I realize how truly incredible it is that our bodies work and work correctly (for the most part) all the time. It's hard for me to not sit in class in awe of the biochemical processes inside of me that are taking place without me even noticing or controlling them. 

Beyond lecture, this week has also been a busy one. Wednesday morning I got my flu shot. This really wasn't anything that took much time or kept me all that busy, but there has been some talk between my classmates about whether or not they were going to get one. Although this was actually my first flu shot (I'm really not sure why I haven't been on top of this in past years), it was a no-brainer for me. Several of my classmates don't want to get one and quite the ethical conversation has sparked from that. I personally think it is our ethical responsibility as healthcare providers to be up-to-date on all of our vaccinations, the flu shot included. This year they were offered at no cost for the students (well I'm sure the cost was worked into our tuition somehow...) and they were given right on campus, so there's not even an excuse that you couldn't make it to the clinic site. I think that as healthcare providers we have a responsibility to our patients to protect them from any sort of diseases that we could give to them. For me, it's akin to washing your hands before an examination or using sterilization procedures before a surgery. We spend quite a bit of energy protecting ourself from diseases that we could possibly acquire from patients by using standardized precautions (basically if it's wet, sticky and not mine, I am to wear gloves/mask/eye protection/gown/etc), I don't understand why we wouldn't give our patients the same treatment. But in the end, each of us get to decide whether or not we feel comfortable getting the shot. 

On Thursday, I visited my preceptor for the third time. I actually got to interview and examine a few patients on my own before the doctor came in. As we progress in our education, we get more opportunities to do this. I know that each of us are thankful for these patient-encounter opportunities. There was nothing truly that remarkable about this visit...nothing to write home about, at least. Regardless, it was a great experience!

Friday wrapped up my hellish 4 weeks of examinations with my first "Objectively Structured Clinical Examination" (OSCE). Truthfully, I didn't even know what OSCE stood for until I just googled it. But essentially it is a clinical skills examination. We will have one more of these this year and then two during each the 2nd and 4th years. They get progressively more complicated as our training develops. This OSCE was supposed to represent "normal" everything, although some of the standardized patients actually didn't have normal examination results. I don't think I can actually talk about the questions on the examination because questions are used for several years and it's a test required for medical students across the nation...I know that some of my friends reading this will be experiencing an OSCE in next few years and I don't want to give away all of the fun! I didn't realize I would be as nervous for it as I ended up being, but I think it went well! The standardized patients and the M4 students who graded us were all very nice. After our OSCEs (Megan and I just happened to be scheduled for the last exam period on Friday afternoon...what luck!) we enjoyed some cupcakes from Jones Bros cupcakes. What a great way to celebrate the end of a difficult month! I also supported the students fundraising for their medical mission trips over spring break by going to a wine tasting at a local wine store. It was quite fun!  It was also a nice way to celebrate the end of a tough 4 weeks, and more importantly the official end of our first core of our M1 year. I'm still trying to process how the past 11 weeks went by so quickly! It's absolutely mind-boggling!! 

This morning I had quite the wonderful experience. As many of you know, I have been involved in HIV/AIDS prevention education for the past 7 years or so (holy moley, has it really been that long?!?). When I came to UNMC, I was worried that I wouldn't have any time to continue with peer education of that sort because it had become a real passion of mine over the years. Luckily, there is a program associated with Douglas County Correctional Facility where med and nursing students from UNMC and Creighton go and complete chlamydia and gonorrhea testing. There's actually a program that they're implementing within the next year in association with the state department and Nebraska AIDS Project (NAP) to do HIV testing, which is totally awesome! But anyway, Douglas county, for whatever reasons, has the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea in the country!! The numbers for Douglas county are astounding...significantly higher than the national and state average. To try and reverse this, the Do JuSTIce program was created. It was so much fun! We give a short presentation on common STD/STIs and prevention methods, and then test those who would like to be tested. It's quick and completely pain-free. The best part of the whole situation is that we test for the STDs that can be treated...and treated easily. This is great news from a public health standpoint so that, hopefully, overall rates of infection decrease within the county. I seriously feel lucky to be part of this group! Earlier this week I attended the training for the HIV testing program and am excited for it to get started soon. I know that many of my classmates are nervous about the idea of being in a jail with inmates talking about that icky, awkward subject of sex, but I found this morning that actually the men I talked to were far more interested and mature than many of the college students I gave presentations to in the past 4 years. It's interesting how that works out, eh? Later this week we will go back to give treatment to those who need it. Love, love, love! I finally felt like I was back in my element for the first time since school started. I may have also used my stunning good looks to convince a few men to get tested...I guess you have to use the tools you have at your disposal...? Haha I'm so hilarious, I crack myself up. 

This upcoming week will also be a busy one, but thankfully one without an exam. Thank you to each of you that has supported me throughout this transition to school. I'm still doing the best I can to get used to this whole graduate school thing and not a day goes by that I don't thank God for each of you. Happy Mo-vember y'all (No-shave November?...whichever floats your boat!)!!